DOES EXPERIENTIAL LEARNING BOOST STUDENTS’ PERFORMANCE? RESULTS FROM IMPLEMENTING THIS METHODOLOGY WITHIN A COMPETENCIES-BASED HUMAN RESOURCES MANAGEMENT SUBJECT AT THE UNIVERSITY OF SEVILLE

The Faculty of Labor Sciences at The University of Seville was the pioneer in the incorporation of the subject of “Competencies-based Human Resources Management” in their degrees. In its effort to adapt their subject to the Bologna process framework, a new optional subject was proposed within the branch of Human Resources. This subject includes topics related with managing on human resources by competencies, leadership and coaching, three current issues that have been lately strongly implemented within organizations.

This study aims in first place to provide a thorough understanding of this subject (description of the subject’s objectives, contents, methodology, and scores), and secondly to analyze whether the continuous-assessment-based (CMB) methodology actually favors students’ academic performance. Concretely, we present a model in which we hypothesize that the students’ personal and group work through two assignments –practical case study and final essay– developed during the course positively impacts their final exam grade. Hence we attempt to empirically proof that through the experiential learning lens, those students that effectively “learn by doing” during the course, will attain higher a grade in the exam.

The sample is composed by 311 students belonging to the Faculty of Labor Sciences corresponding to two academic courses (2014-2015 and 2015-2016). This group was formed by students enrolled in the subject “Competencies-based Human Resources Management” that is taught in the Labor Relations and Human Resources degree.

Consistently with the literature and our research hypotheses, our results reveal that those students that attended to lectures, worked continuously and engaged actively in group activities, reached better results in their final exam, and therefore, in the final grade of the subject. Thus, we conclude that the teaching methodology implemented in this subject has the ability to motivate and create enthusiasm among the students, which promotes in turn successful and significant learning.